Migration and Pension

   (351 K)

Migration has important implications for the financial soundness of the pension system, which is an important pillar of the welfare state. While it is common sense to expect that young migrants, even if low-skilled, can help society pay the benefits to the currently elderly, it may nevertheless be reasonable to argue that these migrants would adversely affect current young since, after all, the migrants are net beneficiaries of the welfare state. In contrast to the adverse effects of low skilled migration in a static model in a Samuelsonian overlapping generations model that migration is a Pareto-improving measure. All the existing income (low and high) and age (young and old) groups living at the time of the migrant's arrival would be better off.

Published: Published as "Migration and Pension with International Capital Mobility", Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 74, no. 1 (October 1999): 141-150.

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